Swiss Family Raptor Squad
by Nev Longbottom
Summary: Zara survives.
1. Chapter 1

Zara wakes to feel herself floating in water. She's disoriented and her skin is burning but she feels her heart pounding and she starts swimming as quickly as she can for the emergency ladders that line the walls around the lagoon as Jurassic World. She cough as she swims but she doesn't dare slow down to catch her breath. It's dusk already or possibly dawn but there's no way for her to be sure.

When she does find the ladder and scramble over the side, she finally lets herself throw up on the ground. She throws up shark skin and unintelligible things she doesn't want to think about. She pressed her back against the wall and looks around for danger. Zara's already been eaten once today by dinosaurs after nearly eating eaten by a third time. She's getting progressively closer to death and she's pretty certain the third time will be successful.

The park is deserted. She picks her way carefully through the Main street that looks completely demolished. The buildings are crumbling in part and the closer she gets to the central office, the most blood stains appear. The electricity is still on. The park generators had solar panels and wind turbines installed in every place they could get away with. Whatever wasn't used by park operations was siphones into the back up generators or channeled into the electric fences, increasing the vultage.

Even the park's theme music was still playing softly on the main speakers.

A loud shriek comes from her left and Zara has to muffle down a scream.

There's a raptor on the ground. She's covered in injuries, blood leaking on the pavement and soft sad chuffing.

Zara knows she should probably kill it. She should take one of the fire extinguished and hit the raptor in the face until there's no chance of it moving ever again but frankly she's exhausted and she did not claw her way to her Executive Assistant job at Jurassic World for the money. She did it for the deep love of dinosaurs that had been passed down from every generation of her family down to her.

She sorts through her mental rolodex of the dinosaurs. Light green with slightly large stripes and no blue around her eyes. Delta then. "Cheers love," she says. "You're having a worse day than I am.

Zara can't help but sigh at the pitiful whimpers. She remembers when Delta and her sisters were small enough that they were carried around in baby slings, making happy chirps whenever the interns slipped them tiny bits of food. Delta had a fondness for hot sauce. Louisiana hot sauce on bits of hamburger meat. The other raptors couldn't stand it and Zara used to sneak them to Delta until the girls were deemed too mature to be allowed to roam outside the paddock. Zara rarely has time to- had time to visit, she reminds herself.

Still.

Zara nearly died once today and it was awful. The least she can do is make death a little kinder for her favorite dinosaur.

She goes into what's left of the Dino Grill. She finds a couple of dishes still left under warmed from the evacuation. She takes all the meat she can find and a bottle of hot sauce on the table.

Zara stands a couple steps away from Delta and throws a sauce covered piece of meat. Delta's nostrils flare when Zara tosses it over but it's not close enough to Delta to reach. Delta makes another sad wail and Zara steps close enough that she can lob tiny sauce covered chunks right into Delta's mouth.

Delta stops wailing the minute the first one lands and after a few more pieces she shifts into a combination of happy trills and distressed snuffles. Zara sits down beside Delta and sighs. "I know, Delta. I know it hurts. I promise, it'll be much better in the morning." Zara's not a vet but she's fairly sure Delta won't make it to tomorrow morning.

Zara gets up and starts to walk away again but Delta starts wailing again, high and distressed. Zara turns around and the wailing stops.

She shouldn't. She really shouldn't but...the sat phone will still be there in the morning and it's not as if the Command Center is going to be much safer than the remaining rubble. Zara curls un in the doorway of the back entrance to the dino grill. The air is warm enough and if she curls up into a tight ball, she can probably get some sleep. Zara's exhausted and it feel a bit like a dream. like she's going to wake up back inside the mosasaur.

She wakes up to Delta nosing her in the face and somehow, she's too tired to feel remotely surprised. "If you're going to eat me, please make it quick and let it happen before Maragaritaville starts playing again in the park speakers."

Delta lets out an inquisitive chirp and nudges her again, but upwards, as if trying to get her to stand.

Zara slowly stands up. She feels stiff from the horrible sleeping position, and her neck is just awful but she hasn't been eviscerated which is pretty huge for the raptors. Out of all the pack, Delta had mauled seven different handlers so far and had made a point of trying to terrify certain staff members until they either quit and changed to another Dinosaur enclosure.

Yet, Zara trusts her. If Delta hasn't killed her yet, then that is a clear sign Zara can trust her a little.

Delta scrabbles a bit at the dirt, then slowly, and with many low wailing sounds, manages to get up on her own feet. She's panting heavily but she's got just enough strength in her to step towards Zara.

Zara stays perfectly still. Delta doesn't bite or swipe at her, she just nudges Zare with her snout towards the Command Center and chirps.

Zara takes a cautious step in that direction. Delta follows and then nudges her again.

"I'm sensing a pattern," Zara says. "Alright, but I'm only going because I was going to go there any way." Delta chirps in response and nudges Zara a little harder.

Together, they slowly stagger towards Zara's last hope of rescue.


	2. Chapter 2

The whole place is a wreck. Zara doesn't know what she is expecting, but it is still a shock to see the broken glass and trash littering the pristine floor. The hologram project is still working, cycling through it's programming. Delta bristles at it before she returns to following closely at Zara's heels.

Every floor has a first aid kit, radio transponder, and an emergency satellite phone. It was part of the specialized safety features demanded by the insurance company and by Masrani Global's risk management team. Claire made a point of having yearly mandated drills that briefed the employees on safety protocols and the location of emergency goods. Although there were contingency plans for the escape of different animals, no one had predicted the sheer amount of destruction the Indominus could do.

The emergency phone on the first floor break room is gone. Zara tries to head up the stairs but Delta lets out a loud bark when she starts climbing and Zara is not about to push her luck with a raptor. She backs away from the stairs and heads for the labs instead.

The sat phones are placed in the employee break rooms and the management offices. The second floor break room is right above the first floor break room but if Delta won't let Zara take any stairs, the next option would have to be Dr. Wu's office.

Delta finds every smell in the labs fascinating. While Zara searches through cabinets and drawers, Delta seemed intent in sniffling every beaker in sight. Zara looks away for ten minutes and when she turns back, Delta has half her muzzle shoves into an industrial sized coffee pot for a better whiff.

Zara lets out a bark of laughter that surprised both of them. Delta makes an inquisitive whistle, turning her head to look at Zara with the coffee pot still around her face. Zara laughs even harder.

"No, darling,"she says, gasping to catch her breath. "Delta it's alright. I'm just. I'm fine. I'm fine."

Delta chirps in recognition and turns her back to Zara again.

Once Zara catches her breath, she goes back to her search feeling a little lighter. She finds the steel suitcase in the bottom drawer of a titration station, under a jar of peanut butter, a stapler, and what could be anywhere between two and thirty tangled USB cables. She pulls out the case and flips the double snaps. The phone itself is in the center of the emergency kit, bright yellow around the edges with a design that reminds Zara of the old Nokia phone. She turns it on and flips through the old menu for contacts.

The blocky text reads "ADDRESS BOOK IS EMPTY"

Zara looks back into the case. Under where the phone had been was a list of ten numbers. Lowery Cruthers is at the top of the list, followed by a series of names Zara doesn't recognize and Claire's at the bottom.

She dials Claire's first. "The voicemail box you have reached is full…"

Zara works her way through the entire list, receiving the same message over and over again. She tries dialing random phone numbers but can't seem to come across a combination that works. She tries to call her Mum she can't remember what the country codes. All of Zara's numbers had been kept in her cell phone and she's never bothered to remember any of it.

She tries 999 and 911 and finally, when she runs out of buttons to put in, she searches through the drawers for something, anything until she manages to find a slip of paper with seven numbers scribbled in a corner with the words "Mother Hen Asshole" scribbled underneath. Zara dials the number and crosses her fingers.

There's an answer after two rings, "Hello? This is an unlisted line, how did you get this number?" says a suspicious voice on the other line and Zara recognizes that voice, oh thanks god.

"It's Zara Young, Dr. Wu. I'm Claire Dearing's assistant? Oh god please you have to help me."

"Zara?" Dr. Wu sounds shocked. "Zara calm down."

"I'm still at the park," Zara says, her voice cracking over the last word. She sniffs and wipes her face with the back of her hand. " Please you have to help. I woke up and everyone's gone." It's starting to feel harder to breathe and Zara tries to gasp for air but she can't quite do it. She tries and tries and then suddenly Delta is pressing her body into Zara's side, helping hold Zara up and she feels like she can breath again.

Distantly, she hears Wu's voice and she realizes she dropped the phone. She reaches for it with her hand, picking it up once she manages to pull herself back together a bit. Dr. Wu' is calling her name and she manages to pull herself together enough to say, "Sorry. I had a bit of a panic attack."

"Have you managed to reach anyone else?" He asks.

Zara shakes her head then says, "No. No one else. Please, you have to help me."

"Okay, here's what we're going to do. Do you remember the emergency evacuation procedures?"

Zara nods then says, "Yes."

"I'll reach out to Masrani Global's emergency team. It may take us a while, a couple days even. I'll need you to stay near wide open areas. Keep this phone nearby."

Zara closes her eyes for a moment and thinks, she can handle a couple days if she has to. She feels safer with Delta at her heels, even if Zara knows what raptors can do to a person. She grew up on stories of the first park. She can handle another couple days if it means going home to her fiance Alec, her mom and uncle, to hot showers, fresh curry, and the largest, softest bed money can buy.

"Unfortunately, the Indominus managed to tear a hole into the restricted section of the island so whatever you do Zara, stay as far south as you can. I'll be in touch soon." Wu ends the call on his end before Zara can tear into him.

What did he mean, the Indominus ripped a hole in the restricted section. Did he mean the barrier that had been put up to protect the rest of the park from the part of the island where they had never managed to root out all the original dinosaur packs? The area where the remnants of the first raptor pack? The compy packs that breed like rats? The dilophosaurus that everyone kept thinking were eradicated but weren't? The miniature stegos that attacked anything they deemed threatening?

Delta lets out a low trill of distress.

The sound snaps Zara out of the panic attack she was building. Right. Just because there was damage in the barrier, it didn't mean that all the dinosaurs would come pouring out. Dinosaurs were territorial and even if they came pouring out, Zara had Delta on her side.

"Right. Okay. I'm alright now, thanks." She takes a minute to slowly pull herself together. She straightens up and stretches

Right. She has a plan now. She is going to have to stay near wide open areas but remain hidden. She's going to need food and shelter for one twenty something woman and one average sized raptor. The easiest way to get food for Delta would be to stay near the dead herds but that was too close to the restricted section.

Maybe the Staff floors in the hotel? Zara dismisses that almost immediately. The doors all require key cards. She could manage but Delta can't use key cards and she was not going to bring a raptor into tiny apartment.

She's going to have to either sleep in the Command center or camp out. Zara feels like she's forgetting an option but between the filthy dirt outside or geek central, she was going to find every soft comfortable thing in this building and put it one one place.

She put her phone back in the case and she's trying to find a way to fit the peanut butter when Delta jerks.

Delta whole body is leaning to the right, like she's listening intently to a sound but Zara can't hear anything besides the rattling of the air conditioning. Delta hold the pose a couple seconds and then turns around and pushes Zara towards the door with her whole body.

Zara nearly drops the case and the peanut butter. She doesn't know what Delta means but there can't be anything good coming from it. She flips the snaps back closed and takes the peanut butter jar with her other hand. Once they get out the door, Delta pushes her again, hard toward to the left. Zara starts to walk quickly where Delta pushes her. She can't move very fast without shoes and she body is still sore from sleeping on the ground.

Zara hears a loud clattering sound behind her. She turns around to hear an angry hiss from the open stairwell.

Delta pushes her again, harder and Zara takes that as a sign to walk as fast and as quiet as she can. Mr. Hoskins' office in this building has a fire escape. If Zara can get both of them into the room and bolts it, they can escape out the back from whatever is chasing them.

There's an unfamiliar screech behind her and she breaks into a run, dashing straight for the office with Delta to her right. "Here," Zara yells, pointing at the doorway before she goes through. She makes it in and turns around to close the door once Delta's through. She catches the glimpse of an open red frill before she slams the door shut in it's face and turns the locks.

Delta goes over to the large sliding door that let on to the balcony/fire escape and looks intently at the mechanism.

Zara hears the dinosaur start to scratch at the door and knows she has to brace it. The walls are concrete, but the door is the thin sort of wood that could easily break is anyone really tried to push the issue. Zara looks around the room. A filing cabinet, desk, mini fridge and a couple of shelves along the walls. Mr. Hoskins was rarely in this room as he had a second office closer to the raptor paddock, but he had insisted on having an office in both centers. Zara figured it was because the man was a complete arse. She tossed the metal case and the peanut butter jar on to the desk before she pushes the filing cabinet against the door.

Delta has her claws in the handle for the sliding door and she's pulling as hard as she can but hadn't figured out the flip lock just above the handle. Zara hits the switch in between Delta's attempts. Delta lets out a triumphant screech when she gets it and dashes out on to the balcony and then jumping right over the edge.

Zara grabs the suitcase and the jar before dashing out on to the balcony and heading for the ladder leading down to the grass below. She dashes it as quickly as she can, feeling unbalanced with both hands full, and she nearly falls when she has to jump the last couple feet to the grass. Delta is right next to her in seconds, nudging Zara with her muzzle, to get up, run as fast as she can. The grass is soft and Zara's bare feet have no trouble keeping up with Delta. She turns glances back briefly and she sees a glimpse of what she thinks is a Dilophosaurus in the distance, a dark green smudge with a red circle running towards them. Zara tries to move faster. She follows Delta's lead, into a thick maze of trees and a out into a large, wide field of large grass. Delta makes a point of keeping her tail pressed against Zara's right shoulder and Zara is so thankful for it because once they make it a dozen feet into the grass, she can't even make out the back of Delta's head.

Delta leads them into the thickest of of the thicket before slowing down. They stop for a second and then they both hear it, a low, familiar pained whine followed by a distinctive squawk. "Echo," Zara says, and she doesn't even thick of trying to follow Delta. She pushes her own path through the grasses until she finds the space where Echo is.

The grass is splattered with blood and Zara is horrified by the dried blood that she sees around Echo. Delta is nudging at her muzzle but Echos eyes are glazed over.

Zara has never been more grateful to have a first air kit. She starts to flip open the locks when a third rustle starts to break through the glass and she sees the Dilophosaurus lean over Echo's body.

Zara feels a surge of rage come over her and she lashes out, hitting the dinosaur in the face as hard as she can with the steel case. She drops the peanut butter to grab the case with both hands slams it again with all her strength. Before she can manage a third hit, Delta jumps, pushing the Dilophosaurus back into the grasses out of sight. She can hear the wet tears of flesh and the dying shrieks of the Dilophosaurus and the only thing Zara can feels is relief and a growing sense of urgency to care for Echo.

Echo.

She opens the case and rifles for the strongest painkiller she can find and then she doubles the dosage. She opens the peanut butter and scoops a wad out with her fingers. Echo is too weak to do much more than try to snap at her when Zara holds her muzzle closed against the ground and then smears the pill and peanut butter lump on the edge where her lips meet.

When Zara lets go, Echo licks at the lump and seems to enjoy the taste well enough to swallow it. Zara uses the gauze inside to dab at Echo's wounds and clean the edges with the small bottle of hydrogen peroxide she found.

Delta comes back with a muzzle pull of meat from her kill. She drops her lump in front of Echo and nudges it towards her.

Echo doesn't seem to have the strength to chew. Echo makes a low keen that just tears at Zara's heart.

Delta replies with a soft warble of her own and starts to rip the meat into smaller pieces. She presses the tiny pits into Echos mouth and waits until Echo chirps before reaching for a new one.

"Oh darling, shh," Zara says. One of her wipes with the gauze catches on something. Zara frowns and reaches for the tweezers in the first aid kit. The sun is bright enough that Zara can almost see, but the shadows from the grass and from Delta makes it hard to get a good look. She pulls out the small Maglite flashlight and turns it on.

Echo's wounds are filled with shrapnel.

Zara is horrified. She keeps the flashlight in one hand while she works, pulling out whatever she can find in each wound. It takes long enough that the sun is overhead by the time she's done. The shrapnel is still fairly sharp and it makes Zara nervous enough that she wraps the ace bandages around her feet, just in case there's any left on the ground. She needs to go to staff housing and put on some decent shoes from her house, get some real good, change her clothes and pack enough to keep her going but she doesn't think Delta would leave Echo. She doesn't want to head back into the park by herself either. If the Dilophosaurus was out hunting, who know what else had already infiltrated the civilian areas of the park?

Delta lays down, curling around Echos body as best she can. Delta waits until Zara's done and then carefully lays her muzzle over Echo's body and closes her own eyes to sleep.

Zara reaches for the jar of peanut butter and resigns herself to eating it straight out of the jar. it they were going to sleep, someone would have to stand watch. She pulls the phone out of the case and puts it in her lap. Just in case.


End file.
